Press Release – Nigeria Delta State Project

Prepared jointly by Douglas Trotman, Attorney-at-Law for Nigerian Students, R.E. Guyson Mayers, Attorney-at-Law for Sharon Brathwaite, R.E Guyson Mayers represents Ms. Sharon Brathwaite and Douglas B. Trotman represents 66 Nigerian students in this matter

Mr. Trotman was instructed by his clients that they wished to have Ms. Sharon Brathwaite reinstated as their coordinator; they also wanted issues related to their accommodation, food, laptop computers and cell phones raised and settled preferably before the start of the program. The matter of the lack of decency and respect shown by Ms. Donna St. Hill towards them was also an issue raised by the students.

A letter was written and delivered to Ms. St Hill on the 7th January 2015 outlining the issues raised by the students; to date Ms. St. Hill has not responded to the letter nor has she accepted service of a subsequent letter written to her. Instead Ms. St. Hill used the media to put her story in the public domain. The assistance of a government senator was sought and that senator communicated with Ms. St. Hill to no avail.

During the effort to resolve the issues we have listened over the past two weeks with keen interest to a string of accusations that were levied against Ms. Sharon Brathwaite, whether she was named or not.

The defamation laws of Barbados, in doing no more than applying common sense, allow for the identification of a person whose character has been defamed, although that person has not been named. We believe that Ms. Brathwaite has suffered this fate.

Information released to the media indicated that Ms. Brathwaite was entrusted with US$2.5 million dollars and that she has misused one million Barbadian dollars of that assigned sum. The instructions and statements given to us by Ms. Brathwaite as well as our investigations into this matter suggest otherwise. Based on our findings we are satisfied that a significant amount of money that was allocated to the education project for the Nigerian students currently studying in Barbados and Trinidad, has not been applied to the benefit of the students. The evidence shows that Ms. Brathwaite is not responsible for that turn of events.

The paper trail, stretching from Nigeria, to the United Kingdom, to Trinidad, to Barbados, and which will lead elsewhere, clearly indicates that our client and a colleague in Trinidad who was engaged in a similar capacity to our client in that country, were made aware that US$ 2.5 million dollars was earmarked for the first stage of this project in Barbados, and US$ 3.5 for the first stage in Trinidad. It has been established that after the Nigerian Delta State Higher Education Ministry released this money to Ms. Donna St. Hill, the ground administrators in Trinidad and Barbados were then given a much smaller budget and instructed by Ms. St. Hill to cut a number of items from their budgets. These administrators proceeded to obey their orders from their principal.

The paper trail also establishes that Ms. Brathwaite was instructed by Ms. St. Hill to make payments from a business account which was established to facilitate this project, to Ms. St. Hill’s personal account. Those payments were sometimes made in cash and others were by wire transfer and Western Union.

We have also established that Ms. Brathwaite was required to use funds that had been allocated to the Barbados arm of the project, to support the Trinidad portion of the project. Separate monies had been apportioned for the management of the Trinidad project. Ms. Brathwaite also had to pay the new project manager in Trinidad her first month’s salary out of the Barbados budget. Ms. Brathwaite used money from the Barbados project to purchase washing machines, dryers and other items in Trinidad for the care of the students who are studying in Trinidad. Those payments were all done on the instructions of Ms. Donna St. Hill.

On studying Ms. Brathwaite’s accounts, we are satisfied that the monies she received ($758, 515.00 USD) and her legitimate expenditure or transfer of funds on the project and/or on the direct instructions of Ms. St. Hill has been accounted for. In fact it is the Delta State Program/ Donna St. Hill International which owes Ms. Brathwaite through her company for services rendered in Trinidad and Tobago.

We as attorneys for the students and Ms. Sharon Brathwaite present the following list of agreed facts:

1. The programme was to be certified by City & Guilds.
2. The programme was to be held at Divi Southwinds Hotel (Mr. Alvin Jemmott).
3. Mr. Guy Hewitt, now Ambassador Hewitt, was originally identified to be the local coordinator of the project. He withdrew from the project owing to Ms. St. Hill’s refusal to furnish him with the full allotment of the identified funds.
4. The Barbados Community College (BCC) was then contacted for accreditation and as an alternative to the original location.
5. Dr. Gladston Best facilitated the requests made by Ms. Sharon Brathwaite.
6. The programme courses were designed by staff of the BCC in conjunction with Ms. Brathwaite.
7. The Registrar of the BCC wrote Ms. Brathwaite in July 2014 informing her that the students had been accepted.
8. Dr. Best informed the Commissioner of Higher Education of Delta State by letter that the programme was due to commence on the 15th of August, 2014.
9. The Ebola outbreak directly affected the start of the programme.
10. The budget approved by Delta State was subsequently, constantly varied by Ms. St. Hill. The coordinators of both the Trinidad and Barbados programme have supplied that evidence.
11. Those variations of the budgets affected the benefits to which the students were entitled.
12. Ms. St. Hill brought a new accountant into the picture and the budgets were further amended.
13. Ms. St. Hill gave instructions to Ms. Brathwaite to enter an agreement with Infinity hotel for the accommodation of the students. Later, Ms. St. Hill entered new negotiations with the hotel and the agreement was varied significantly. She signed a contract with the hotel for reduced amenities and a reduced sum of $330,000.00. The hotel held the rooms for the students from June 2014 to November 2014, a period in excess of the down payment. The hotel informed Ms. St. Hill that a further payment was needed to continue holding the rooms. No further payment was made and the hotel unblocked the rooms in November, making the rooms available to other guests.
14. Ms. St. Hill decided to take all the students to Trinidad for the month of December, awaiting Barbados’ approval for them to come here. The immigration authorities there gave a deadline of December 31, 2014 for the students who were to be studying in Barbados to leave Trinidad by that date.
15. An accommodation arrangement was made with Casa Grande Hotel for the students to stay there for 4 to 5 weeks. Pursuant to that arrangement, Ms. Brathwaite paid a deposit of $40,000.00 USD. On December 30, 2014, Ms. St. Hill made an arrangement with Casa Grande Hotel for the accommodation of the students for nine months. The payment for this arrangement was paid by Ms. St. Hill to the hotel.
16. Ms. Brathwaite, as a result of instructions given by Ms. St. Hill, also covered expenses for the Barbados-bound students in Trinidad, including meals, transportation, social activities, stationary, lap tops, a printer, staff to take care of the students, and other related expenses.
17. Ms. St. Hill requested of Ms. Brathwaite that she divert certain sums from Ms. Brathwaite’s budget to Ms. St. Hill in Trinidad, which she did.
18. Ms. St. Hill requested a wire transfer of US$35,000.00, and another of BDS$10,000.00 from Ms. Sharon Brathwaite’s company account to be transferred to St. Hill’s personal bank account, which she did.
19. Ms. St. Hill requested of Ms. Brathwaite that certain bills be paid for all of the 150 Nigerian students who were all in Trinidad initially, out of the funds allocated to the Barbados budget, which was done. This included $175,000.00 USD for the December accommodation of the Trinidad-based students. In addition, Ms. Brathwaite paid a deposit of $50,000.00 USD for the accommodation of the Barbados-bound students while they were in Trinidad.
20. Ms. Brathwaite paid over $24,000.00 USD for two weeks education at the Trinidad Tourism Institute for the Barbados-bound students.
21. Ms. Brathwaite paid for the airline tickets to transfer the students from Trinidad to Barbados. This amounted to $43,000.00 plus BDS.
22. Ms. St. Hill received cash in US currency, as requested, drawn from the Barbados budget while she was in Trinidad and on occasions in Barbados.
23. Ms. St. Hill received as personal funds a sum in excess of Bds. $320,000.00 paid to her out of the Bds $1.5M which was under the control of Ms. Brathwaite.
24. Despite St. Hill’s instructions to Ms. Brathwaite, she then claimed that Ms. Brathwaite misappropriated US$500,000.00. The evidence does not support this.
25. This claim was made by Jonathan Mukumbo, a Gambian working in Barbados as Ms. St. Hill’s Personal Assistant, who told the students that he was representing Ms. St. Hill.
26. Mr. Mukumbo has now been designated the Project Manager. He is believed to be working in Barbados without a work permit.
27. Ms. St. Hill dismissed the caterers hired by Ms. Brathwaite in Barbados and brought a chef from Trinidad to Barbados to prepare meals. This development occurred because Ms. St. Hill cut the budget for meals from $14.00 US per meal, which was the rate paid in Trinidad, to $7.00 US per meal when the students arrived in Barbados. The caterers adjusted the portions in accordance with the money provided and complained that the price offered was insufficient. The Trinidad chef is believed to be working without a work permit.
28. In December 2014, a representative of the Ministry of Higher Education in Delta State, Nigeria, while in Trinidad, invited Ms. Brathwaite to Delta State for the purpose of entering a Memorandum of Understanding with her. This was as a result of a breakdown in communication between them and Ms. St. Hill over the allocation of funds and the absence of infrastructure that should have been in place.

Our instructions are that Ms. St. Hill pre-emptively made a report to the police concerning this matter. We are also informed that she did not follow up with a formal report. This gives the uncomfortable impression that this action may have been designed to unfairly direct undeserving attention to Ms. Brathwaite. Our client has prepared a statement for the police to assist their investigation.

Various press reports citing comments from the Deputy Governor of Delta State, Ms. Donna St. Hill and Dr. Deryck Murray (appointed as a mediator by the Prime Minister) give the impression that the students are settling in well and that the issues have been resolved. We all are working for that outcome however the situation has not yet been resolved.

We can state for a fact that Ms. Brathwaite has located rooms at two hotels which can accommodate all the students until such time as Infnity hotel can accommodate the students in May of 2015. The students wish to move from their current location and also to have the other issues initially raised addressed. The students were outraged when on Wednesday 21st January 2015 they were presented with a document and advised to sign it without having any recourse to consult with counsel on the legal effect the said document may have on their status in Barbados and in the program. Several students have not signed that document and this has raised another matter, unnecessarily so, which has to be resolved.

Some of the features of this matter may give credence to claims of fraud and/or money laundering. The local, regional and international authorities have a vested interest in ensuring that important international transactions are not mere fraudulent or money laundering schemes.

We welcome a thorough investigation into these events by the Nigerian Government through the office of its High Commission in Trinidad. We recognize that this program and the issues surrounding it are as a direct result of the Governor and the Deputy Governor of The Delta State acting in consort with Ms. Donna St. Hill/ Donna St. Hill International and not that of the Nigerian Government.